A punishing 206.81km special followed between Teruel and Longares, split into two sections, and Al-Attiyah extended his overall lead by a further 1m 10s at the 84.66km point. Roma was his closest challenger, with X-raid's Terranova in third position.

Al-Attiyah comfortably won the second section and headed into the overnight halt with a 4m 46s advantage. Campos held third and Novitskiy was eighth. Bernardo Moniz da Maia and co-driver Joana Sotto-Mayor were 15th, but Argentinean Orlando Terranova and Lee Palmer found themselves down in 38th position after losing time with problems on the second section of the second selective section.

Saturday's competitive action began with a 133.12km selective between Villamayor and Huesca, north of Zaragoza, and preceded a shortened 211.63km section from Longares to Belchite via Alcaniz and a run through a super special stage in central Zaragoza held in memory of the late Colin McRae.

Al-Attiyah was again the fastest driver on the stage, despite running first on the road and the Qatari extended his overall lead to 6m 29s over Roma, who set the fourth fastest time behind Luc Alphand and X-raid Portugal's Filipe Campos. Novitskiy and Terranova were classified sixth and seventh and the result moved Terranova up to 20th in the general classification.

Moniz da Maia moved up to 11th before retiring when a freak fire engulfed his car and that of Japanese rival Hiroshi Masuoka after nearby grass caught fire where both cars had left the road on a tricky corner.

Al-Attiyah was again quickest on the last two sections of the day to extend his overall lead. There were two final sections on Sunday, beginning with a run through a 126.74km section from Longares to Belchite and finishing with a repeat of the McRae Memorial stage in central Zaragoza from 12.51hrs. Al-Attiyah began the final day with an 8m 34s lead over Roma, with X-Raid colleagues Campos and Novitskiy in third and fourth positions and Terranova running in 10th.

Nasser extended his advantage by a further 17 seconds at the 37km point of the 126.74km section, although he had noticeably eased to just eight seconds in front of Roma at 65.80km and eventually finished ahead of the Spaniard's time and was only the super special in Zaragoza away from a stunning win.

He duly clinched the fastest time on the final one-kilometre stage to confirm a superb result, with Campos and Novitskiy securing third and fourth places for X-raid.

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